DODO said:
1. Early patient contact? Simulated patients, volunteer clinics, etc.?
- Western has been increasingly incorporating clinical medicine skills including physician-patient interactions into the curriculum, even earlier in the first semester. These clinical medicine experiences pretty much span the whole first two years on campus. There are also several different volunteer opportunities including health screenings in Pomona as well as a free health clinic that students rotate at in Monclair.
DODO said:
2. What is this preceptor thing?
- Not sure what you are referring to, but it could pertain to the ability to set up a clinical rotation with a specific physician (a preceptor) rather than a general hospital rotation where you may end up working with a number of different physicians at a time. There are plusses and minuses to these varied experiences.
DODO said:
3. From what I read the 1st year cur. is only really lec./lab based, am I wrong?
- If you are referring to the traditional lecture style, lectures are still a good part of the curriculum although problem-based learning modules have been incorporated into various parts of the curriculum.
DODO said:
4. What are the lecture and lab class sizes (professor:student ratio)?
- Not sure what this current class' size is, but it is probably about 200-220. I have no clue what the faculty to student ratio is but I believe it is not a big deal in lectures. As far as anatomy lab goes, there are student facilitators that take the summer anatomy course to help out as well as a number of different anatomy professors. In OMM lab, there are faculty as well as teaching fellows and teaching assistants to help learn the material.
DODO said:
5. Are there volunteer options also maybe abroad volunteer options?
-As I said before, there are several volunteer opportunities available and even more depending on how active a student is in promoting an activity. As far as volunteer activities abroad, some students work with various organizations such as the Flying Doctors of Mercy (LIGA) and will fly down to Mexico a few times a year to help at various smaller towns where there is no other medical care nearby. There are also supposedly international rotation opportunities for fourth year medical students.
DODO said:
6. If you are a current student or alumni what do/did you think and any other interesting stuff related to the school would be great.
- I would suggest to try and search through the older SDN message threads for Western as many pre-med and medical students have asked and answered questions, some of which may or may not pertain to what you're interested in learning. Furthermore, I would suggest if you are really interested in the school, call them up and ask to stop by for a tour which will allow you to chat with a student, tour around, talk to other students, and sit in on lectures. There is also OMAC (osteopathic medical awareness conference) which happens once or twice a year and it basically is a half saturday where pre-med students and/or families come to listen to a few presentations by faculty/administration/staff, take tours of the campus, eat lunch with other students, and have the opportunity to ask questions to a panel consisting of students/faculty/administration.
Hopefully my limited information (some of which may be slightly outdated) will help you on your quest to obtain more knowledge about our school. Good luck!
Ok thanks in advance. I was just getting frustrated searching with no success and western's website is pretty slow and lacking information.
Anyone know what the heck this "exam" is about, and its purpose (like, just seeing where the class as a whole stands in anatomy?)
No more study guides for you my friend 
